The foot as the domain of tonal alignment of intonational pitch accents

This paper presents evidence from an experimental investigation of the alignment properties of pre-nuclear rising pitch accents in Egyptian Arabic, across different syllable types (CV, CVV and CVC). In both CVC and CVV syllables, the H peak is aligned within the second mora of the syllable, but in CV syllables the H peak appears in the following (light) syllable. We argue that these generalizations support adoption of the (metrical) foot as the domain of tonal alignment of intonational pitch accents in Egyptian Arabic, and discuss this finding in the context of current debate regarding tonal alignment in intonation languages